Grant Achatz: 11 Reasons I Love Chicago

by Alessandra Bulow

on 02/18/14 at 01:00 PM

"I honestly don't think that Alinea would have worked anywhere else besides Chicago," says chef/owner Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea, Next, and The Aviary. Although Achatz was born in Michigan, he didn't intentionally return to the Midwest to build his culinary empire.

"I was working at the French Laundry for a little over four years when I made the decision that it was time for me to find my own culinary voice and to do progressive American tasting menus," he says. "I did a nationwide search in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles for a restaurant with an owner who was willing to give me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted--I was only 26, so to find someone who was willing to let me do that was pretty rare. The only situation that I found was right here at Trio, in a suburb of Chicago."

While Achatz flourished in Chicago, other avant-garde chefs struggled. "Back in 2001, all the progressive-style restaurants and chefs in New York didn't do all that well. The New York Times and Gourmet magazine were a little tough on Paul Liebrandt at Atlas and Wylie Dufresne at 71 Clinton and wd-50, so looking back I don't think that Alinea or Trio, with the food that I was doing and still do, would have worked in New York. Everything clicked here. Chicago's culinary community and media were really open to my crazy style of food so there was no reason to leave. Then once I opened Alinea, I was a business owner, so I wasn't going anywhere at that point."

Running a culinary empire and coaching the American Bocuse D'Or team in New York doesn't leave Achatz with much leisure time, but to recharge, he tries to see plays at Steppenwolf Theater or catch a live music show at The Whistler, Schubas, or Kingston Mines. He's also blown away by Chicago's stunning architecture. "Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings and a lot of the skyscrapers can be pretty inspirational from an aesthetic point of view that I would say influences the way that the food at Alinea looks in some ways."

Even though Chicago's sterotypically thought of as a meat-and-potatoes town, you will never find Achatz at one of the city's steak houses on his days off. "Crazy enough, even though we're actually kind of running a steak house at Next right now, I've never actually been to a steak house. Ever. I don't know why. Kind of odd, right? The concept of a steak house seems very dated. They haven't evolved and in some cases you don't want them to. That's why we decided to do Chicago Steak as a menu at Next. After doing a lot of research on the history of steak houses, now I might be tempted to go to one of the classics, but it's never been of interest to me."

Instead, Achatz prefers comfortable neighborhood spots and Asian-influenced restaurants. "You have a pretty diverse group of restaurants ranging from anything aspiring to be a Michelin three-starred restaurant all the way down to some great ethnic food," says Achatz. Here, Achatz reveals the top reasons why he loves Chicago.

1. Insider Spot:Katsu"This relatively unknown Japanese restaurant in West Rogers Park flies under the radar and it has some of the best sushi I've ever had period, whether it be here, in Japan, or New York. It's a really great restaurant run by a husband-and-wife team: He's the chef and she works in the front of the house. Typically I just sit at the sushi bar and let him go but you can also order omakase of a couple different lengths. He flies in the fish from Fiji Market in Tokyo several times a week, and he's been at it for a long time so he's a master. It's super-high-quality sushi so it can get pretty pricey. I go maybe eight times a year. It's small and pretty intimate--definitely not a mainstream very popular restaurant in Chicago even though its ratings are always off the charts with local publications."

More after the jump!

2. Comfort Food: GT Fish & Oyster "This place is lively, loud, and approachable with excellent food and really good energy. One of the signatures is the creamy clam chowder, which is pretty amazing. The menu is seasonally changing so there aren't too many things that stick around all year, but the chowder's always on the menu. The fish-and-chips are pretty incredible, too: perfect batter, super fresh fish, and the fries are fantastic--great texture. People take that sort of food for granted, I feel. Chef Giuseppe Tentori comes to the Aviary pretty frequently and we always invite him to the friends-and-family practice dinners at Next when we change menus. We see each other out and about quite a bit, too. He's about to open a new place, too--GT Prime. GT Fish & Oyster has a primarily seafood-focused menu and he's going to the exact opposite with this one with a steak and meat focus, which should be exciting."

3. Chef Hangout: Yusho "Chef Matthias Merges worked at Charlie Trotter's for 17 years and then moved on to open Yusho, his first restaurant--he's opening one in Las Vegas soon, too. It's just great! He does a lot of grilled skewers and really smart, clever, and creative Japanese-influenced food like his mixture of crispy fish skins: salmon, cod, black bass all sprinkled with powdered mustard, salt, and pepper. No one was doing yakitori in Chicago before Yusho opened, and Matthias also does noodles on Sunday so you can go get your ramen and udon fix."

4. Under $10: Pho 777 and Tank Noodle "Argyle Street has a lot of Vietnamese restaurants and I especially like these two places for pho. I usually get the pho with traditional brisket and thinly sliced eye of the round and then just blast it with plum sauce and Thai basil because I like it really aromatic. I'm not much for a lot of spice so I don't typically add a lot of hot sauce. They're giant bowls of ripping hot soup for very little money. For me, there's no way I can sit down in front of one of those and eat the entire thing. It's like three meals. It's crazy!"

5. Best Dessert: The Bristol "I can throw a stone to my house from here and it's literally the one restaurant I go to the most. It has a great menu, amazing pasta, and the Basque cake is to die for. I didn't have much Basque cake before coming here and now I order it for comparison whenever I see it on another restaurant's menu--but The Bristol's is amazing."

6. Kid-Friendly: Shanghai Terrace at The Peninsula Hotel "I hate to say this but typically hotel restaurants are overrated--is that a bad thing to say? But I think they do a great job here. They have a permanent spot on the menu for three or four different abalone courses, which is not something that you typically come across because 1. It's so expensive and 2. People don't know how to handle or prepare it. Also, the Peking duck is awesome. They bring it to you in several courses, which make you feel like you're at a ceremonial banquet in China. You get a duck fried rice, duck consommé, and roasted Peking duck with pancakes and scallions. Usually the duck serves two people but my family and I get an extra one just so we can take the rest home and snack on it the next day. My kids love it and bring it to school for lunch: a 10-year-old showing up to elementary school with Peking duck for lunch--that's pretty funny."

7. Pizza: Pequod's "Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is baked in a cast-iron pan so it's impossible to pick up--everything would just slide off so you have to use a knife and fork. It's thick, there's a lot of sauce, and it has pretty high moisture content because usually I get onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Then it's loaded up with cheese so it's like lava. Jon Stewart started a pizza war between Chicago and New York recently, but I like both pizza styles. In New York, I barely even check into my hotel before getting a slice from Prince St. Pizza. It's become part of my routine and now it's a non-negotiable."

8. Hot Dogs: Hot Doug's "If you're talking about Chicago food, you have to talk about hot dogs. Doug Sohn does some pretty unusual toppings and the hot dogs themselves are really good--I like the foie gras dogs and the venison dogs. He's also had rattlesnake and alligator dogs as specials. I've never had them but most people say they taste like chicken. There's always a line of about 35 to 40 people waiting outside and it's virtually impossible to get into. They should sell tickets like Next."

9. Caffeine Fix: La Colombe "I make a double espresso at my house every morning just to get the day started. At work, this is the top coffee spot for me. It's within walking distance from Next and Aviary and what I order depends on how much time I have. It can range anywhere from a double espresso on the run when I need jolt to a latte or Americano if I can sit down. They supply our restaurants with custom blends and roasts so we know them pretty well and the baristas may do a pull of a certain origin coffee that they let us try. They're good people who are super proud and passionate about what they do, so I think that anyone who comes in and shows interest would get the same treatment."

10. Bars and Wine "There's a really good bar scene in Chicago that ranges from your high-end conceptual cocktail bars to gritty dive bars like Gold Star Bar and Rite Liquors. It's great to go to The Barrelhouse Flat, The Violet Hour, and Sable because you've got talented--I hate this word--mixologists behind the bar, people who have an amazing knowledge of spirits and how to craft a cocktail. When you're at the dive bars you're drinking cheap beer and shots of Jameson, and the bartender is probably going to yell at you at some point, tell you to get out, maybe swear at you like a sailor. They've got good atmosphere and a dive bar is its own beast. For wine, I like Perman Wine, a shop owned by Craig Perman, a former sommelier of mine at Alinea. I'm a little biased, but he's super knowledgeable and not pretentious about wine at all. Wine is made to be consumed. It's not a collector-slash-trophy situation here; he tastes all of the wines and buys the ones he likes because he wants to turn other people onto them. He's a really big fan of old Champagnes that are getting oxidized in a good way, so he typically has a lot of Champagnes in the house that are often hard to find. He's turned me onto a lot of different wines over the years--things that you wouldn't typically see on the average restaurant's wine list."

11. Industry Store: Northwestern Cutlery "I've purchased two chefs knives here over the years. It's a very nice store near Next and Aviary with a great selection of Western and Eastern blades and lots of kitchen tools. It's very driven toward culinary professionals but the public can shop here too."